Computational thinking (CT) practices have gained increasing importance in primary school education. However, there are few tools to measure primary school students' CT practices that are based on rigorous psychometric approaches. This study developed an operational definition for CT practices by exploring the key dimensions of their composition and, more importantly, developed and validated a generic test tool that can effectively assess students’ CT practices. Items to measure CT practices were developed using the evidence-centered design (ECD) approach. These items prompted students to exhibit behaviors that demonstrated their skills in the four dimensions of CT practice, namely testing and debugging, algorithmic thinking, reusing and remixing, and abstracting and modularizing. A test consisting of these items was administered to 13,956 Grade 4–6 primary school students from 56 public schools in Hong Kong. The data were analyzed based on the item response theory (IRT) approach, together with other psychometric tests. A bi-factor three-parameter logistic model was ultimately adopted for test validation, as it fitted the data better than the corresponding two-parameter and one-parameter logistic models. The results validated the four-dimensional structure of the CT practices test. The reliability, test item characteristics, and CT practice abilities of students are also discussed. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study examined kindergarten teachers’ behavioural intentions to implement play-based learning and its relationship to two types of facilitating factors: organisational (i.e., instructional leadership and trust in colleagues) and individual (i.e., teacher self-efficacy). Structural equation modelling examining the direct and mediating effects was conducted on data collected from 542 Hong Kong kindergarten teachers. The results showed that principal instructional leadership was positively associated with teachers’ intentions to implement play-based learning directly and indirectly through trust in colleagues and teacher self-efficacy. Teachers with higher efficacious beliefs showed more active intentions to implement play-based learning. These findings highlight the importance of creating conducive organisational conditions and enhancing teacher self-efficacy for the implementation of play-based learning in kindergartens. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

In the era of information explosion, it is surprising to find that most of our students have not learned to self-regulate their own studies well. It might be explained by the common use of spoon-feeding teaching method since the beginning of public schooling in Asian countries. The individual differences in intelligence or diligence of students may not have been taken into careful consideration in mass class teaching. Students seem to be expected to overcome their personal limitations in order to benefit from the school curriculum. In recent studies, it is found that students’ failure to learn may be caused by insufficient ability to manage their own learning due to the lack of learning motivation, effective learning habits and skills. Self-regulated learning is widely perceived as a crucial element of successful, independent and life-long learning. Therefore, equipping students with self-regulated learning skills and empowering them to become self-regulated learners have become the major concerns of educators.The professional development programme entitled “Integrating Self-directed Learning in Classroom Pedagogy” has been offered to in-service teachers by the Education University of Hong Kong since 2017. It is a five-week block-release programme for practicing teachers. During those five weeks, the participants are encouraged to put theory into practice. They are divided into several learning circles according to their subject disciplines. Each learning circle is asked to develop effective ways of integrating self-regulated elements in their lesson design and implement the research lesson in their own schools.This paper reports an interdisciplinary lesson study of the professional development programme mentioned. Five teachers teaching the subjects of Business, Accounting and Financial Studies (BAFS), Liberal Studies, History and General Studies in primary and secondary schools were grouped together as a learning circle to plan a lesson on empowering their students

In this chapter, a case study of implementing blended learning in a linguistics course will be reported. Traditionally, this course was taught in the mode of a 1-hour face-to-face plenary lecture plus a 2-hour small group tutorial session each week for 13 weeks. To promote blended learning and give students an enhanced learning experience that allows more flexibility and more peer interaction, two of the plenary lectures were converted into online lessons, and Moodle was used as the online platform for hosting the online content. Three levels of online activities were designed and provided online: every online lesson consisted of 3–4 mass open online course (MOOC)-style high-quality lecture video clips (Level 1, resource-based activities) followed by online quizzes (Level 2, response-based activities) and discussion forums (Level 3, collaborative activities). Post-lesson analysis shows that over 320 threads were posted by students on the Moodle forums, suggesting that students were actively engaged in online discussions. A post-lesson survey was conducted after the first online lesson, and the feedback was very positive. The majority enjoyed the flexibility of the online lesson and felt more independent during the learning process. They found the video lectures attractive and effective and the online discussion engaging and beneficial. Other than the online lessons, other resources and activities such as stand-alone course-specific website, weekly online quizzes, and Wikibook projects have been adopted to further promote blended learning. To ensure a fulfilling learning experience, instructional design plays a crucial part, especially in arranging the online lessons and other blended learning experiences. Clear and detailed instructions and guidance were also vital for the success of blended learning. Copyright © 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

遊戲教學法在國際漢語教學的課堂操練中能引起學生興趣，具帶動作用。教師話語對遊戲的應用質量有關鍵性影響，但目前針對課堂遊戲教師用語的研究並不多見。故本文以遊戲教學法設計詞彙教學，錄製準教師的教學視頻，並轉寫教學話語，從話語量、話語類型和話語策略等方面進行分析，討論遊戲教學中教師應如何利用話語帶動課堂操練，並針對準教師在模擬教學中存在的問題提出改進建議，為提高準教師教學話語質量以及國際漢語師資培訓作參考。The game-based approach can arouse learners’ interests in international Chinese teaching and improve teaching efficiency. Teacher talk has a key impact on the application of games, but there are few studies on it in classroom games. This paper uses the game-based approach to design vocabulary teaching, recorded the classroom teaching conducted by a pre-service teacher, and transcribed the video into texts. In view of the problems existing in the simulation teaching, this paper puts forward some suggestions, which can be used for improving the discourse quality of pre-service teachers and as a reference for teacher training in international Chinese teaching. Copyright © 2020 香港中文大學中國文化硏究所吳多泰中國語文硏究中心.

自教改以來，學校都建立了同儕備課及觀課的專業發展文化，期望教師互相學習、共同成長，然而，研究員發現當備課和觀課恆常化之後，往往流於形式和技術性討論，對於提升學與教質量的效能不彰。研究員嘗試在一所小學的中文科引入課堂學習研究的模式進行備課和觀課，從學習困難難點出發，分析學習內容及設計教學，並進行有系統的觀課、交流和反思，探討課堂學習研究對備課和觀課成效的影響，並認為提升教學滿足感和發展校本教研模式可以成為未來持續發展的關鍵。Since the reform of education, schools have formed a mode of professional development in collaborative lesson preparation and peer lesson observation with the expectation for creating the atmosphere of mutual learning and professional development. However, researchers have found that when lesson preparation and lesson observation become a usual practice in schools, it may hinder the effectiveness of professional development. Researchers attempt to incorporate the lesson study method in Chinese Language lessons to enforce collaborative lesson preparation and peer lesson observation. Based on the perspective of learning difficulties, the research team analyzed the teaching content and lesson plans, and conducted systematic lesson observation, communication and reflection in order to explore the effectiveness of using learning study model in lesson preparation and lesson observation. The team found that enhancing teaching satisfaction and developing a school-based learning study model could be a key to future sustainable development. Copyright © 2020 香港教師中心.

In discussions about how to implement learning through/in/at play, there is still not a commonly agreed view. This qualitative study investigated Chinese teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on learning in play to attain a co-constructed picture of learning in play through real classroom practices and perceptions using the Mosaic approach. Fourteen teachers and six parents took part in this study. Among the participants, six kindergarten teachers were interviewed to obtain their perspectives on learning in play. They assisted the researchers in the selection of exemplary play episodes, which were filmed in their own classrooms. Four three-minute videos containing the largest amount of learning elements based on the teachers’ views were selected for further in-depth focus group discussions. The selected multivocal video-cued interview clips were shown to eight other teachers and six parents in focus groups to elicit their perspectives on learning in play. The co-constructed picture of learning in play that emerged included discipline in the classroom, more difficult and complicated learning matters, more freedom to play, and teachers’ intervention to facilitate children’s learning in play. The findings revealed different social representations of learning in play in the Hong Kong context, the contributions of which are important and useful for professional education practices and curricular policy currently undergoing reform. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

This paper demonstrates how the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach can be useful for developing a critical sexual literacy curriculum that combines gender and sexuality education and critical language teaching. The findings from an action research study conducted with 20 tertiary students in a voluntary English class in Hong Kong show how a heightened awareness of conflicting discourses could be stimulated by the heteroglossic nature of the classroom input that included media texts, face-to-face interaction with queer individuals and in-class Boal's Image and Forum Theatres. The learners also experienced mixed emotions toward LGBTI people and reported language gain from the curriculum. A lot more would have to be done in critical sexual literacy research and practice to foster critical awareness of gender and sexuality and to challenge homo- and transphobic ideologies in everyday discourses. 摘要: 本論文探討如何應用「內容和語言整合性學習」(Content and Language Integrated Learning, 縮寫CLIL)模式, 發展一套結合性/別教育與語言學習的批判性性/別識讀課程。參與此課堂行動研究的大專學生有二十位, 課程不但使用了多媒體材料, 也包括與性小眾朋友在課堂上的互動, 和參與波瓦式的形象和論壇劇場。研究結果顯示, 這些課堂材料與活動的語言雜多性, 會令學生對性別討論中的矛盾現象加深了認識, 對LGBTI人士產生複雜的情緒, 並在語言知識上有所增長。在未來, 批判性的性別教育在研究和課堂實踐方面, 我們需要進一步了解如何培養學生對性/別議題進行批判思考, 以及在日常話語現象中挑戰恐同、恐跨的意識形態現象。Copyright ©National Taiwan Normal University. Department of English.

Online learning has become a ubiquitous part of the educational landscape and how teachers are supported in developing approaches to teaching online is a fundamental aspect of the students' learning experience. Based on the implementation of a professional development course on becoming an online teacher offered in a blended learning mode at one university in Hong Kong, this article proposes that offering this type of professional development in a blended mode is very effective in facilitating enhanced usage of the university's learning management system. In a blended mode, teachers are actively engaged with blended learning and were found to make more extensive use of features/tools in Blackboard after they attended the professional development course. Results support that offering professional development in a blended mode provides teachers with an authentic student perspective, at the same time as they take guided steps in the teacher's role in blended learning. Copyright ©Routledge.

Purpose - In the current study, the author tests a conceptual model in which teachers' knowledge and skills of multiculturalism and teaching relationship (cultural harmony) are associated with developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs), developmentally appropriate (DABs), developmentally inappropriate beliefs and developmentally inappropriate practices (DIPs) in the classroom.Design/methodology/approach - Participants were 347 preschool teachers from 12 preschools including 342 women ( 98.6%) and five men (1.4%) aged 24–45 years located across all five districts of Hong Kong. The hypothesized model of multicultural teaching competency as a predictor of DABs and DAPs is confirmed in the present study.Findings - Multicultural teaching knowledge can enhance developmentally appropriate teaching beliefs and practices and reduce DIPs. It is highly recommended that multicultural education can be embedded in early childhood education (ECE) programs for both in-service and preservice teachers.Originality/value - A new conceptual model of teachers' knowledge and skills of multiculturalism and teaching relationship (cultural harmony) associated with DABs, developmentally inappropriate beliefs and DAPs in the classroom was firstly examined. Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited.